India, June 11 -- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi initiated internal discussions to strengthen the party in West Bengal days before meeting crisis-hit Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday, the second such meeting between top leaders of the two parties. The meetings came amid a series of exits from the TMC as it lost power in West Bengal last month after 15 years.

People aware of the matter said Gandhi met former West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday and discussed immediate tasks for the party's revival in the state, where it lost power 49 years ago in 1977. Chowdhury, a fierce critic of TMC, was quoted as telling Gandhi that the Congress, which won two of 294 seats in this year's assembly el...